BMX XXX

Acclaim's naughty trickster has more BMX than XXX.

The developers did a good job of giving gamers a little payoff early on by making the first video extremely easy to unlock too. I say this is a good thing, because from there on out, you're going to be hard pressed to earn every other skin snippet locked up in the game. Unlocking movies comes down to collecting all 45 items of a particular level, clearing all 20 gaps and winning both competitions with gold medals. That's a slick way to get some value out of the game, since there's no point in playing XXX if you're not going for the stripper videos.

Graphics For PS2 game, BMX XXX looks a lot like a third or fourth generation PlayStation title and this proves to be one of the game's greatest weaknesses. The characters look far too blocky to convince me that this is the evolution of the Dave Mirra BMX engine and the animation is a mixed bag of good and bad --Where the rider moves well but the other characters and objects in the environment are awkward and stiff.

Not that past BMX games from Acclaim were known for their spectacular character models, but it's clear that Z-Axis didn't attempt to push the envelope here in XXX. Since most PS2 owners are going to create near-nude female characters complete with exposed nether regions, it would've made sense to have, uh, smoother skinned, more authentic looking physiques. After all, players will be unlocking video clips of real exotic dancers for immediate comparison. Staring down the barrel of a colored splotch of fabric wedged between two blocky cheeks for 20 hours can't be healthy for anybody, even people who are into that sort of thing. The characters you meet in the game don't look much better with maybe a few dozen polygons used to "flesh out" their forms.

At least the tricks are animated very well with the rider and bike interacting naturally. It's easy to recognize the difference between an X-Up and an X-Down or a Decade and a Tailwhip with your rider seamlessly transitioning into and out of a trick while in midair and getting full extension in the move.

There's a wobbly bike animation where your character will lose a little speed as he or she tries to regain their balance after barely landing a sketchy move. A helpful animation like this, though, doesn't explain some of the inexplicable bails and crashes you'll encounter from time to time when you approach certain ramps and rails.

Alhough there can still be awkward moments, usually on the ground and near rails, Z-Axis has changed the way rails are handled from Dave Mirra BMX Freestyle 2 to BMX XXX. Technically, rails are handled more like the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, meaning they're not interpolated, but they snap on, which provides a different feel than the previous games.

The video of the stripper videos is done up with professional quality lighting and filters and might convince you that you're watching an episode of "G-String Divas" but without any talking, emoting, or backstabbing that the HBO series offers.

Sound The voice acting is surprisingly strong even though it was easy for us to recognize that a few of the characters in the game used the same actor. The accents and dialects are all done perfectly from the disembodied voice of a construction worker stinking up a portable toilet to a Winona Ryder-like shoplifter with an annoying California valley girl whine. Many of the potty mouth jokes are subtle so the crisp delivery of the lines was imperative.